CHAPTER TWELVE THE HOLY SPIRIT (Catechism nn. …

1 133 CHAPTER TWELVE THE holy SPIRIT (Catechism nn. 683-747)134 Having expressed the Church s faith in God the Father (Catechism n. 198-421), and in Jesus (Catechism ), the Catechism in CHAPTER Three reflects on the statement of the Creed: I believe in the holy SPIRIT ( ). For the additional material that came out of the Council of Constantinople, see the previous CHAPTER . We are affirming our faith in the SPIRIT of God as experienced by Jesus: our faith in the bond of communion between Jesus and the God whom he addressed as Father . To speak of the SPIRIT is to speak of the mystical dimension of religious experience.

2 As disciples of Jesus we believe we are gifted with Jesus own SPIRIT poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5), revealing God as Love and inviting and enabling us to share Jesus own communion with contemplating the SPIRIT of Jesus, let us reflect on some key texts from the Hebrew Scriptures. We begin with the opening verses of the Book of Genesis: In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the SPIRIT of God swept over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:1-2). Some scholars suggest that the author is speaking only of a mighty wind.

3 Others see a reference to God s SPIRIT breathing over chaos to bring order and life. There is no ambiguity in the second text: YHWH God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nos-trils the breath [ SPIRIT ] of life; and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). Human beings are what we are because there is more to us than the dust of the earth. We live because God breathes God s holy SPIRIT into us. The same is true for all living creatures: They look to you to give them their food in due season .. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

4 When you send forth your SPIRIT , they are created; and you renew the face of the ground (Psalm 104:27-30).The destruction of Jerusalem and the deportations of the leading citizens to Babylon, led many to the edge of despair. It appeared that the people of Judah were to suffer the same fate as the people of Israel a century before. The prophet Ezekiel declares that God will again breathe God s SPIRIT into the people and restore them to life: I will cause breath ( SPIRIT ) to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am YHWH.

5 Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord YHWH: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude (Ezekiel 37:5-10).The SPIRIT of YHWH135 The Catechism ( ) quotes the following statement from Isaiah. It refers to the Mes-siah, and so is realized fully in Jesus: The SPIRIT of the Lord shall rest on him, the SPIRIT of wisdom and understanding, the SPIRIT of counsel and courage, the SPIRIT of knowledge and piety.

6 His delight is in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2 in the Greek Version). It is this SPIRIT that filled the heart of Jesus, and from the fullness of his own communion with God Jesus shared this SPIRIT with his disciples. Luke has Jesus choosing the following statement from Isaiah (61:1-2) as expressing his understanding of his mission (see Catechism n. 714): The SPIRIT of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord s favour (Luke 4:18-19).

7 In Jerusalem on the final day of the New Year Festival, Jesus exclaimed: Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said: Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. John comments: He said this about the SPIRIT , which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no SPIRIT , because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:37-39). What does John mean: As yet there was no SPIRIT ? Obviously from the beginning and throughout his ministry Jesus shared with others the SPIRIT that bound him in a com-munion of love with God.

8 However, the fullness of this love could only be given when Jesus life had reached its climax: when he was embraced by God in the complete life of the resurrection. Only then could the fullness of his SPIRIT be poured out from his heart to ours. This is the fullness of divine love that Jesus promised at the Last Supper: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever (John 14:16). The Advocate, the holy SPIRIT , whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you (John 14:26). We are reminded of Jesus words to the woman at the well in Samaria: The water that I will give will become in you a spring of water gushing up to eternal life (John 4:14).

9 Our reflections turn now to Jesus hour of glory , to Calvary where, surrounded by people who were not listening to grace, he was cruelly murdered. We see him continuing to pour out God s love, the SPIRIT of his love-communion with God. John writes: Jesus said: It is finished . Then he bowed his head and gave up his SPIRIT .. One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out .. As Scripture says: They will look on the one whom they have pierced (John 19:30, 34, 37). The holy Spirit136 John s community returns to this scene in the First Letter of John in which they insist that there is more to being a disciple of Jesus that water and the SPIRIT .

10 We must embrace our crucified Lord in his self-giving on Calvary. We must not try to bypass blood : There are three that bear witness to Jesus: the SPIRIT and the water and the blood (1 John 5:7-8).From his prayer Jesus knew that his mission from God was to set the world ablaze by opening people s hearts to welcome the fire of God s SPIRIT (Catechism ): I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! (Luke 12:49). I am reminded of the words of Father Jules Chevalier, the Founder of the Religious So-ciety to which I have the privilege of belonging (the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart).